Twenty Years of Battlegames

On 18thJune, 1998—Waterloo Day—I pressed the launch button on a site that was to dominate my life in one way or another for the next 20 years.

I look back now at that first version of the site, which was designed to fit what was, by today’s standards, the microscopic screen size of 640 x 480 pixels, and reassure myself that, at the time, it was cutting-edge stuff.

The first battlegames site splash page, first launched June 18th 1998.

Thanks to the Web Archive at http://web.archive.org, I’ve been able to retrieve the home page from November 1998, just a few months into the site’s life. Wow—I’d forgotten that waving flag gif in the middle of the page! This was, of course, back in the early days when everyone had a so-called ‘splash’ page, a ‘front door’ you had to pass through before you reached the content proper. But this was also before Google trawled every page of your site, and you had to register your website’s existence with listing services like Yahoo!, which acted as a Yellow Pages for the internet.

By August 2000, I had undertaken a major overhaul of the site which took on the familiar three-column format you can see here. Given that I had only started designing websites in 1996, this represented a major shift in approach from graphics-led to content-led—a sign of the times, as custom-crafted websites were giving way to database-driven corporate sites such as Amazon and the BBC. I don’t have the stats to hand, but the late 1990s saw a sudden and rapid uptake of the World Wide Web by commercial interests, coupled with the increasing market share of home computers and early laptop devices. People had colourful, transparent iMacs on their desks and I was working on a 17 inch (yes, a huge seventeen inch!) screen. It weighed a ton! Mobile phones were still relatively crude, but by now it was certainly possible to send text emails by phone, and the first colour screens were appearing on the market.

Battlegames site revamped in 2000 with three-column format.

In 2018, of course, you may well be reading this blog post on your phone, with a screen that has higher resolution than my brand new Mac G4 with 17″ screen did at that time. In fact, you may even use an app that allows your browser to read these words aloud to you.

But, technological progress aside, the fact that I was still keeping the website going after two, heady years was clearly a good sign. I remember being somewhat gobsmacked at the number of hits the site was getting. Remarkably, I have found a set of statistics from 1999, indicating that I was getting around 2,500 visits per month—a figure which, curiously enough, correlates closely with the number of subscribers the printed version of Battlegames had a few years later.

Battlegames web stats from early 1999.

And that’s when the focus shifted, because in December 2005, I posted this excited editorial on the site:

The announcement that Battlegames magazine was going to be real, first posted in December 2005.

[Below is the text from the original November 2005 home page shown above in full. By all means skip—but actually, the enthusiasm is kind of infectious, and the spirit still applies…]

“I am genuinely finding it hard to sit still. Hardly surprising, when you learn the news that I’ve been sitting on. A dream I’ve been having for a long, long time is finally coming true.

On March 14th 2006, Battlegames is changing forever. it won’t need batteries. it won’t need a wall socket. it won’t require you to fire up your computer, and you won’t need to download any gargantuan files. Because on that day, at long last, you will be able to pick up a real magazine and relax with it wherever you feel most comfortable: in the library, perhaps; on the train; whilst taking a trans-Atlantic flight; or even in that most traditional of reading rooms, your bathroom.

Now, while you pick yourself up off the floor, let me introduce my right-hand man in this venture, the suave and sophisticated Steve Gill, native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and equipped with the kind of sardonic sense of humour that will have you chuckling whilst being run over by a tank. Like me, he’s an aficionado of Old School Wargaming and, like me, has fond memories of the likes of Charles Grant and Brigadier Peter Young. But also, like me, he dabbles in a bit of GW on the side and is not averse to the possibilities offered by top-end technology (in fact, he’s an Apple Mac nut like me).

After suffering repeated beatings, Steve finally succumbed and agreed to step up as a Director of Battlegames Ltd and Commissioning Editor for the new magazine. His charming wife Carol is our Company Secretary, as shrewd a business cookie as you’re ever likely to meet. Both Steve and Carol have considerable expertise in the world of publishing and bookselling. And boy, oh boy, have we got a treat in store for you.

As I’ve mentioned before, this site is scheduled to undergo some major changes over the next couple of months, and now you can understand why! The site will become an extension of the magazine, where we will have the space to add more detail and material to pieces that have appeared in the magazine. In addition, we will be using the site for things that only the Web can offer — multimedia, such as short movies, sound, animations and so on. Our aim is to make Battlegames the sort of magazine you thought had sadly gone forever, so it’s going to need a first-rate website to accompany it.

There will be other things you will be able to do here too. Pay online for your subscription, for a start, using either PayPal or your credit or debit card. In due course, we will also be building a kind of online supermarket, where you will be able to buy not just Battlegames merchandise, but also books, figures, terrain and all the bits and pieces that are essential to our hobby.

But what of the magazine itself? It will initially be bi-monthly, 48pp A4, with lots of colour, beautifully printed on quality paper by professional printers. Cover price will be £3.50. It will have advertising, but the ads will not be allowed to dominate the magazine: our aim is to give you a clear run at the high quality content that we’ll be bringing you. And what might that be, you may well ask?

Okay, so what, if anything, do you feel has been missing? I’ll tell you what I think. A magazine that concentrates on the ‘gaming’ side of wargaming. A magazine with high quality articles by major names in the hobby. A magazine with good, solid opinion pieces from some of the thinkers that drive the hobby forwards. A magazine with old names, new names, but most of all, bags of personality. A magazine that will make you think as well as inform you. A magazine that isn’t afraid to speak out when it’s needed. A magazine that recognises the debt we owe to the old pioneers of the hobby as well as to those breaking new ground right now. A magazine that might make you laugh or might make you cry. A magazine that recognises the different strands in our hobby, but brings them together in harmony. A magazine that is full of passion for our hobby and that will make you feel proud to be part of our wargaming community. A magazine, in other words, that you will want to read from cover to cover, over and over, and that you will want to pick up again and smile at maybe twenty or thirty years from now.

So who have we got lined up to work this kind of magic? Well, there’s me, of course, and as well as plenty of opinions (but you’re used to that by now, right?), I’ll be keeping my promise, and bringing you the full, ongoing and unabridged Wars of the Faltenian Succession, my fictitious 18th century campaign that rumbles ever onward. There will be Steve Gill, bringing you a feast of historical battles re-fought as wargames, with lots of maps and photos, with the focus on the wargames themselves, not regurgitated potted histories. There will be my old mucker, Guy Hancock, with his hand on the tiller of the Fantasy and Sci-Fi section, covering not just Games Workshop stuff, but everything that’s on offer in the bewilderingly diverse F & SF scene.

Yes, you might want to read that bit again. it’s true. You heard it here first. Siggo and Asquith, on the same team, side by side. In print. In Battlegames magazine.

And then there are a host of others, some names you will have heard, some perhaps you won’t have. We’re saying nothing just yet, as negotiations are underway, but they will be from the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, mainland Europe and perhaps even darkest Wales. Some may write regularly, others just from time to time.

And then, of course, there’s you.

If you think you’re up to the job, either as a writer, illustrator or Flash animator, then we’d love to hear from you. We will pay real money for all published material, but please, DO NOT SEND ANY UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS OR ILLUSTRATIONS. In the first instance, contact our Commissioning Editor, Steve Gill, for our guidelines and to pitch your idea, together with any examples of previously published work… Similarly, if you are interested in advertising in the magazine, or subscribing to it, contact Steve, who will provide you with our rate card in due course.

We also have a very special deal for our ‘charter subscribers’, which is to say those of you who will sign up and pay your subscription pre-release. Your name will be commemorated in print in the first edition, and you will also receive a special Battlegames gift, to be announced soon.

Now, that’s enough excitement for one evening, isn’t it?

Watch this space for more news, coming soon.

Until then, happy gaming, and Merry Christmas.”

[Note: sadly, Steve and Carole’s involvement ended before the first magazine went to press, but I shall always be grateful for their contribution at the start of the project and it’s right to commemorate that here.]

But it’s fair to say that that post changed my life, spawning a huge response in my email Inbox, and so in March 2006, the new-look Battlegames site looked like this:

The Battlegames site in March 2006 when issue 1 or the magazine was launched.

Incidentally, the colour scheme of the site was partly the result of the early visuals of the front cover, which nearly ended up with a khaki coloured border. Covert trials, sneaking into the local WH Smith and putting it alongside other magazines on the shelf, put a stop to that!

This, then, is how Battlegames magazine came into being. Little did I know what a stormy decade was ahead of me. The magazine had a good run of five years and 26 issues, but hit the financial buffers in the autumn of 2011, only to be rescued by Atlantic Publishers and become a stable-mate of Miniature Wargames. It came as a surprise to everyone, not least me, when in 2013, the two magazines merged in what was, in effect, the little frigate boarding and capturing the first-rate, and Miniature Wargames with Battlegames was born.

The first of the merged Miniature Wargames with Battlegames magazines in 2013.

But the magazine market rarely stays still for long. It was in the July 2015 editorial of MWBG387 that I announced that the magazine had changed hands again and was now controlled by Warners Publications. Although it just looked like a change of logo on the front cover, this development represented a major cultural change in the management of the magazine. As you know, by September 2016, I had decided that it was not a culture I wanted to be a part of, so issue 402 was my last.

The first issue of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames published by Warners.

Now, I’m not taking you on this journey as an ego trip, though I’m certainly proud of the part that I’ve played in giving the wargames magazine industry a jolt. No, the thing that interests me is that, after two decades, I’ve returned to my roots on the Web with this Patreon venture—and that suits me fine.

You see, the printed magazine industry is more than just a hard taskmaster: it’s often downright tyrannical. Print deadlines are no joke, and when you’re relying on content being supplied by enthusiastic amateurs, it can lead to sleepless nights. Moreover, print and distribution are expensive, especially when you’re a niche magazine with a relatively small following. And for me, getting onto the shelves of major chains like WH Smith here in the UK, let alone places such as Barnes & Noble in the USA, was a financial impossibility.

Such tight margins also limit what you can pay your contributors. I ALWAYS believe in paying contributors—unless they’re kind enough to point-blank refuse, and even then, I prefer to donate at least a nominal sum to charity on their behalf—because it shows you take your business seriously, and so should they. (I’ve been around long enough to know that only in very exceptional circumstances do I give away my words for free. Writing is hard work, and it’s a major part of my job. Try getting an accountant or lawyer to take on your work for nothing!) But this means that you’re competing with other magazines who can pay slightly—or, in some cases, considerably—more.

And then there’s the natural stress of wondering whether your print run will sell out, or leave you with with dozens, hundreds, possibly even thousands of copies left in storage. Initially, you fondly imagine that this will provide you with some kind of pension, as back issues gradually keep selling over the coming years. Boy, did I learn the hard way! When Atlantic Publishers bought Battlegames from me, they told me to send them five copies of each of the back issues and to pulp the rest. It nearly broke my heart.

On the shelves to left and right, thousands of copies of Battlegames in storage. Each box held 50 copies. All but a tiny number of these were pulped after the Atlantic Publishers takeover.

These are some of the challenges facing the magazine publisher—and it’s not just the printed magazine, either. We all remember with fondness Battle for Wargamers, Practical Wargamer, the much too short-lived Wargames Journal and others. And the latest news is that even dear old Military Modelling has hit the buffers too, after a long and distinguished heritage going back to the early 1970s.

But PDF ventures run foul of the business model too—in recent years, Wargames Journal in its digital format, Wargame Bloggers Quarterly and now, sadly, Wargamer’s Notes Quarterly, run by Greg Horne and Stokes Schwartz. These were worthy efforts, but fall foul of the facts that (a) they can’t afford to pay their contributors; and (b) they don’t attract regular contributions from a reliable stable of writers. Could it also be that, ultimately, the contributor also doesn’t possess anything tangible, such as a complimentary hard copy of the magazine, to put on their shelf?

And in the end, is this the problem with digital files like PDFs or ebooks, as opposed to online venues like this website? I know that I’ve got hundreds—Lord help me, possibly more—of PDFs on my Mac or books on my Kindle that I downloaded on impulse and then have completely forgotten about. Whereas I will happily re-visit certain websites that I frequent because when I get there, I can browse the content, see what’s new and occasionally unearth something that I missed.

Moreover, there’s also the community aspect, in that I can interact with the author/blogger by way of leaving comments and even have those comments receive a reply. The site gives me the sense that I belong, whereas however worthy an effort, a PDF is simply something to read when I get round to it.

But this is also true as the creator of content. The point of being a blogger, or a Patreon creative, is not merely to crank out work into the world, though that certainly can be a fulfilling aspect of it. No, for me at least, it’s being at the centre of a community of like-minded people with common interests, and knowing that serving those people matters in some way, far more than just selling product. Even when the printed magazines I created were at the height of their success, it was always via the medium of the internet that I had the sense of being most closely connected to the readership, other than on those relatively rare occasions where I attended shows and could meet them in person.

The Battlegames patreon website, sustained and driven by the sense of a creative at the hub of a community.

As an online creator, you also have considerably more freedom, in terms of what you write about, how often you write, and the length to which you write. You can also establish your own ‘house style’, and don’t need to follow any diktat laid down by a magazine’s editor, let alone its publishers who may have their own agenda. Furthermore, as I’m discovering, there’s a whole world of other media to explore at one’s fingertips, such as audio, video, animation and so on.

Lastly, even though my activities in the hobby are primarily online, with the advent of new print-on-demand and short-run technology, there’s nothing to stop me venturing into print whenever I want via my own self-publishing imprint Gladius—which I fully intend to do, and soon! And I haven’t even mentioned the book contracts with a couple of well-known military history and wargaming publishers…

And so perhaps you can understand why, whilst I look back on my time at the helm of Battlegames and Miniature Wargames with Battlegames magazines with pride and affection, they are firmly a part of my past, not my future. I don’t see the demise of the printed magazine anytime soon—in fact, the magazine market is as healthy and as ruthlessly cut-throat as ever—but I don’t envy the publishers and editors running them. Been there, seen it, done it, lived it, and it nearly ruined me.

So, whilst I have gained some happy memories along the way, and I hope my efforts have given you some too, the future is an ever-changing landscape. I, for one, am happy to stride towards it with open arms and a healthy mixture of curiosity and caution, learned from experience. But I am also willing to embrace new opportunities when they present themselves. This is one such opportunity and, thanks to your support, I’m loving it.

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24 comments for “Twenty Years of Battlegames”

Andrew Rolph

21st June 2018 at 5:20 pm

20 years! Who’d’ve thunk?! This post stirs so many emotions in me I don’t know where to start.
1) There were 6 or 7 years of Battlegaming brilliance before the magazine?! Why did no one tell me? I missed all of it.
2) What was I doing in 1998 anyway – it’s ages ago? Ah I remember I was about to start on a particularly disappointing part of my career.
3) The interweb in 98? You were a bit of a pioneer. I’m not sure I knew it existed then.
4) The first 12-15 editions of Battlegames were excellent – really shook things up. I remember the stir they created at the time. Wargaming bods I knew we’re actually talking (positively) about a magazine again rather than cancelling subscriptions or complaining.
5) Your own writing in there wasn’t too shabby either. Still want to see Salamanca! Come get on with it – you must have some spare time now☺ – your public awaits (or is it just me?)
6) My genuine distress when you said it had to fold (regardless of the fact that I thought it wasn’t quite as good as at the start – it was, nevertheless better than anything else)
7) Nooooo…don’t pulp the magazines…!

Lots of very fond memories. Suddenly you’ve become a VIW (very important wargamer) having started simply by thinking a new magazine would be a good thing – see where 20 years will take you.

So, in summary, thanks for the most uplifting, positive nostalgic post I’ve read in a while but mainly for simply deciding to make a contribution to the hobby…and then making it big!

Thanks for that effusive and overwhelming response, Andrew! VIW – I think I might steal that… 😉 As for pioneer, I built my first website in 1996. My business partner at the time said “Nah, it’ll never catch on…” I kid you not!

Hi Henry
20 years, I can not believe it its been that long. It was a great day when I picked up the first copy and saw that at last a magazine to fill the gap left by the end of Practical. I have every copy from number 1 to the end. Glad I have no gaps seeing that all the back numbers were pulped.

A proper wander down memory lane! That anecdote about having to pulp back issues of the magazine is just horrifying! But after all the ups and downs you’re still here and the Battlegames ‘brand’ is still going strong. Long may it continue.

I’m not sure if congratulations or commiserations are due; you continue to do a magnificent job helping wargaming to flourish and prosper, and I doubt if many people who have not tried to edit a magazine have any idea of the stress it can generate. My own modest efforts have involved editing THE NUGGET at various times over the the last thirty-eight years … and I’ve known that feeling of having a publication deadline looming and not a lot to put into the next edition!

I do hope that you continue to prosper and enjoy what you are doing, and communicating that to others inside the hobby.

Thank you, Bob. As they say, it takes one to know one! I really appreciate your comments, Bob, and for my part, I’m delighted to see your own entures into print in recent years. More power to your elbow!

Thank you Henry for the continuing voyage, as it were, with Patreon. I have enjoyed and been totally satisfied voyaging with you since before BG#1, etc. Best wishes for success and satisfactions a plenty in the future.
Gratefully,
Bill Protz

I hadn’t realized that you had a Battlegames web site prior to the creation of the magazine in 2006. I miss that little red magazine and its successor, briefly, when it merged with MW. Publishing a magazine and being its editor is one of the hardest jobs that I ever did and I tip my hat to you for staying with it as long as you did and for always turning out a product, every month, that was fun to read and well worth the cover price.

I don’t think that I have bought a single magazine after you retired from the editorial reins of MW, so I was very happy when you announced that you were jumping back into the mix with the current Patreon venture.

Thanks for your support, Jim, and of course for your contributions to the magazine as well. It meant a lot to me that you were one of the leading US gamers to back the venture. Even 2006 seems like a long time ago, let alone 1998!

Well done, Henry and thank you! Your magazines (and web content) continue to bring me great joy and help keep things moving forward during those darker periods when there dosn’t seem to be enough free time for carefree hobby pursuits. I first stumbled onto your website in the early 2000s, and it was only in early 2006, just before the first issue of the magazine hit the stands, that I made the connection. The light went on as they say, and I returned to the hobby with renewed vigor after a dozen of so years away. Long live Battlegames (in whatever form that might be)!

Much as it saddens me I think that the golden age of the print magazine is certainly over and that we will slowly see a decreasing number of periodicals on the shelves of newsagents from now on.

I still have every Battlegames bound, preserved and retained and I do occasionally flick through and re read (mainly the Faltenian) articles but Patreon and similar sites where you subscribe and get your fix of your particular niche product (all for less than the cost of a couple of cups of coffee) are, I suspect, the future.

The thing that touched me was the destruction of the old magazines. I can understand why that was asked for (cost of storage etc) but it must have been particularly difficult for you. The temptation to ‘rescue’ some additional copies would have been very hard to resist.

Thanks Nigel. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe our hobby fix will be beamed straight into our brains one day by the latest version of Amazon’s Alexa…!

As for pulping the magazines, yes, it was agonising. But I couldn’t afford to store them, there was no room at home to hide more of them and besides, at that point I was pretty depressed. Seeing the early issues now change hands at more than double the original cover price, well… c’est la vie!

Dear Henry,
A very concise and not at all self indulgent recap of a 20 year period that has had significant impact not only in your life but on those of other people. If it hadn’t been for Battlegames I would never have discovered Spencer Smiths and Imaginations. I was scared of being looked down on by ‘proper wargamers’ for my poor painting and magpie nature, as well as for my ‘it’s a game’ attitude. Through reading Battlegames, I realised that I was not alone, and this led me to attend the Featherstone weekend, which has now become my annual dose of fun gaming. You always talk about the impact The War Game had on you and I think it’s not gilding the lily to say that Battlegames had a similar impact on me. I miss my monthly dose of your writing, which always was like a big brother or favourite uncle taking time to explain things to the ‘not so young cub’. Many thanks for the last 20 years and here’s to another 20. Who knows, the third book might be out by then.